2014-2015 SC Young Adult Book Award Nominees

2014-2015
SC Young Adult Book Award Nominees
Alice in Zombieland
by Gena Showalter
Beautiful Music for Ugly Children
by Kirsten Cronn-Mills
Bomb: The Race to Build and Steal
the World’s Most Dangerous Weapon
by Steve Sheinkin
Boy 21
by Matthew Quick
Breaking Beautiful
by Jennifer Shaw Wolf
Butter
by Erin Jade Lange
Crewel
by Gennifer Albin
Croak
by Gina Damico
Don’t Turn Around
by Michelle Gagnon
Fracture
by Megan Miranda
The Girls of No Return
by Erin Saldin
Grave Mercy
by Robin LaFevers
I Hunt Killers
by Barry Lyga
I Swear
by Lane Davis
If You Find Me
by Emily Murdoch
No Man’s Land
by S.T. Underdahl
October Mourning: A Song
for Matthew Shepard
by Leslea Newman
The Opposite of Hallelujah
by Anna Jarzab
Out of the Easy
by Ruta Sepetys
The Paladin Prophecy
by Mark Frost
2014-2015
SC Young Adult Book Award Nominees
Alice Bell has led a sheltered life in suburban
Alabama, shaped by her father’s insistence that no
one leave the house after dark because of the
“monsters.” On her sixteenth birthday, Ali insists the
only present she wants is to see her beloved eightyear-old sister’s evening dance recital. On the way
home, their car is attacked by zombies in front of the
cemetery, and Ali alone survives. Now living with her
maternal grandparents, she is consumed by guilt (her
dad was right after all), fear (the zombies are still
out there), and confusion over her powerhouse
attraction to bad boy Cole.
Booklist (October 15, 2012 (Vol. 109, No. 4)
2014-2015
SC Young Adult Book Award Nominees
Lexile: 600
"Gabe has always identified as a boy, but he was
born with a girl's body. With his new public access
radio show gaining in popularity, Gabe struggles with
romance, friendships, and parents--all while trying to
come out as transgendered. An audition for a station
in Minneapolis looks like his ticket to a better life in
the big city. But his entire future is threatened when
several violent guys find out Gabe, the popular DJ, is
also Elizabeth from school." Flux, 2012
2014-2015
SC Young Adult Book Award Nominees
Lexile: 920
In December of 1938, a chemist in a German
laboratory made a shocking discovery: When placed
next to radioactive material, a Uranium atom split in
two. That simple discovery launched a scientific race
that spanned 3 continents. In Great Britain and the
United States, Soviet spies worked their way into the
scientific community; in Norway, a commando force
slipped behind enemy lines to attack German heavywater manufacturing; and deep in the desert, one
brilliant group of scientists was hidden away at a
remote site at Los Alamos. This is the story of the
plotting, the risk-taking, the deceit, and genius that
created the world's most formidable weapon. This is
the story of the atomic bomb.
Roaring Brook Press, 2012
2014-2015
SC Young Adult Book Award Nominees
Lexile: 830
Basketball has always been an escape for Finley. He lives
in broken-down Bellmont, a town ruled by the Irish mob,
drugs, violence, and racially charged rivalries. At home,
his dad works nights, and Finley is left to take care of his
disabled grandfather alone. He's always dreamed of
getting out someday, but until he can, putting on that
number 21 jersey makes everything seem okay.
Russ has just moved to the neighborhood, and the life of
this teen basketball phenom has been turned upside
down by tragedy. Cut off from everyone he knows, he
won't pick up a basketball, but answers only to the name
Boy21--taken from his former jersey number.
As their final year of high school brings these two boys
together, a unique friendship may turn out to be the
answer they both need.
Little, Brown, 2012
2014-2015
SC Young Adult Book Award Nominees
Young Adult
Allie lost everything the night her boyfriend, Trip,
died in a horrible car accident—including her
memory of the event. As their small town mourns
his death, Allie is afraid to remember because
doing so means delving into what she's kept hidden
for so long: the horrible reality of their abusive
relationship.
When the police reopen the investigation, it casts
suspicion on Allie and her best friend, Blake,
especially as their budding romance raises
eyebrows around town. Allie knows she must tell
the truth. Walker, 2012
2014-2015
SC Young Adult Book Award Nominees
Lexile: 770
A lonely obese boy everyone calls "Butter" is about
to make history. He is going to eat himself to
death-live on the Internet-and everyone is invited
to watch. When he first makes the announcement
online to his classmates, Butter expects pity,
insults, and possibly sheer indifference. What he
gets are morbid cheerleaders rallying around his
deadly plan. Yet as their dark encouragement
grows, it begins to feel a lot like popularity. And
that feels good.
But what happens when Butter reaches his suicide
deadline? Can he live with the fallout if he doesn't
go through with his plans? Bloomsbury, 2012
2014-2015
SC Young Adult Book Award Nominees
Lexile: 790
Crewel World trilogy, book 1
On the night of her 16th birthday, Adelice Lewys is
drugged and kidnapped because she has the ability
to weave time and matter. She is taken to the
Western Coventry of Spinsters, where she learns
the work of the looms that weave all aspects of
life for the people of Arras. Her quick wit and
sharp tongue serve her well as she learns secrets
kept and revealed, making allies, enemies, and
discovering first love. Lives of innocents can be
ripped out of the fabric of life in a fit of anger or
jealousy. Those deviating from prescribed policy
are reprogrammed. Library Media Connection
(January/February 2013)
2014-2015
SC Young Adult Book Award Nominees
Young Adult
When 16-year-old Lex Bartleby's anger management
issues and violent impulses land her in one fight too
many, she is sent to live with her uncle Mort in the
Adirondacks for the summer, in the hopes that it will
straighten her out. Instead, upon arriving in the tiny
town of Croak, Lex discovers that she, like the
tattooed and motorcycle-riding Mort, is a Grim,
responsible for drawing out the souls of the recently
deceased to facilitate their passing on to the
afterlife. Lex and her new partner, Driggs, with
whom she has a fiery love-hate relationship, stumble
across bodies with no known cause of death, sparking
an investigation into one of the greatest, dirtiest
secrets of the Grim organization.
Publishers Weekly (January 30, 2012)
2014-2015
SC Young Adult Book Award Nominees
Lexile: 710
The first in a trilogy, Don't Turn Around's intricate
plot and heart-pounding action will leave readers
desperate for book two.
Sixteen-year-old Noa has been a victim of the
system ever since her parents died. Now living off
the grid and trusting no one, she uses her hacking
skills to stay anonymous and alone. But when she
wakes up on a table in a warehouse with an IV in
her arm and no memory of how she got there, Noa
starts to wish she had someone on her side.
Harper, 2013
2014-2015
SC Young Adult Book Award Nominees
Lexile: 620
Eleven minutes passed before Delaney Maxwell was pulled
from the icy waters of a Maine lake by her best friend
Decker Phillips. By then her heart had stopped beating.
Her brain had stopped working. She was dead. And yet
she somehow defied medical precedent to come back
seemingly fine
-despite the scans that showed significant brain damage.
Everyone wants Delaney to be all right, but she knows
she's far from normal. Pulled by strange sensations she
can't control or explain, Delaney finds herself drawn to
the dying.
Then Delaney meets Troy Varga, who recently emerged
from a coma with similar abilities. At first she's reassured
to find someone who understands the strangeness of her
new existence, but Delaney soon discovers that Troy's
motives aren't quite what she thought.
For fans of best-sellers like Before I Fall and If I Stay, this
is a fascinating and heart-rending story about love and
friendship and the fine line between life and death. Kirkus
Reviews (November 15, 2011)
2014-2015
SC Young Adult Book Award Nominees
Lexile: 770
Anger over her mother's abandonment when she was small
leads 16-year-old Lida to resent her father and stepmother
and to abuse herself by cutting. Her harmful behavior lands
her in the Alice Marshall School for troubled girls, deep in
the Idaho wilderness. After a shaky start, Lida gradually
befriends hard-edged Boone, who takes her on forbidden
hikes to a forest lookout station where 25-year-old Ben gives
the girls alcohol but otherwise behaves as a good friend.
When drop-dead-gorgeous Gia arrives at the school, she and
Boone hate one another at first sight, an animosity fueled by
Lida, who is juggling a friendship with each of them. Once
Lida introduces Ben to Gia, despite promising not to, Gia
pretends she's a teacher and begins romantic visits with him.
When Boone finds out, the negative intensity with Gia
escalates, until a terrible altercation during a camping trip
sends things over the edge. School Library Journal (April 1,
2012)
2014-2015
SC Young Adult Book Award Nominees
Lexile: 850
Why be the sheep, when you can be the wolf?
Seventeen-year-old Ismae escapes from the brutality of
an arranged marriage into the sanctuary of the convent
of St. Mortain, where the sisters still serve the gods of
old. Here she learns that the god of Death Himself has
blessed her with dangerous gifts—and a violent destiny. If
she chooses to stay at the convent, she will be trained as
an assassin and serve as a handmaiden to Death. To
claim her new life, she must destroy the lives of others.
How can she deliver Death's vengeance upon a target
who, against her will, has stolen her heart?
Houghton Mifflin, 2012
2014-2015
SC Young Adult Book Award Nominees
Lexile: 750
What if the world's worst serial killer...was your dad?
Jasper (Jazz) Dent is a likable teenager. A charmer, one
might say. But he's also the son of the world's most
infamous serial killer, and for Dear Old Dad, Take Your
Son to Work Day was year-round. Jazz has witnessed
crime scenes the way cops wish they could--from the
criminal's point of view.
And now bodies are piling up in Lobo's Nod.
In an effort to clear his name, Jazz joins the police in a
hunt for a new serial killer. But Jazz has a secret--could
he be more like his father than anyone knows? Little
Brown, 2012
2014-2015
SC Young Adult Book Award Nominees
Lexile: 730
Leslie Gatlin's suicide due to relentless high school
bullying provides the backdrop for the
interconnected stories of the four friends who
each played a role in the escalating torment. The
characters' complex relationships with Leslie are
slowly revealed as each bully tries to shift blame.
Horn Book (Spring 2013)
2014-2015
SC Young Adult Book Award Nominees
Lexile: 750
There are some things you can't leave behind…
A broken-down camper hidden deep in a national forest is the
only home fifteen year-old Carey can remember. The trees keep
guard over her threadbare existence, with the one bright spot
being Carey's younger sister, Jenessa, who depends on Carey for
her very survival. All they have is each other, as their mentally ill
mother comes and goes with greater frequency. Until that one
fateful day their mother disappears for good, and two strangers
arrive. Suddenly, the girls are taken from the woods and thrust
into a bright and perplexing new world of high school, clothes
and boys.
Now, Carey must face the truth of why her mother abducted her
ten years ago, while haunted by a past that won't let her go… a
dark past that hides many a secret, including the reason Jenessa
hasn't spoken a word in over a year. Carey knows she must keep
her sister close, and her secrets even closer, or risk watching her
new life come crashing down. St. Martin's Griffin, 2013
2014-2015
SC Young Adult Book Award Nominees
Lexile: Young Adult
Brian is the perfect child to his parents. Dov is the
exact opposite, an "emo" according to his parents,
his arch nemesis Ray Sellers, and even himself.
While he has a handful of friends, nothing seems
to go his way. His mom becomes an emotional
wreck when Brian goes to fight in Afghanistan, and
Dov is on high alert. Things get much worse when
Brian returns with physical injuries and battling
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Teens will relate to
Dov as he deals with his parents. Library Media
Connection (March/April 2013)
2014-2015
SC Young Adult Book Award Nominees
Lexile: Young Adult
On October 6, 1998, 21-year-old Matthew Shepard, a gay
student at the University of Wyoming, was lured into a
truck, driven into the country, savagely beaten, tied to a
fence, and left to die—which he did, five days later. In
the 68 poems that make up this novel-in-verse, Newman
re-creates the events and circumstances surrounding this
unspeakably vile hate crime and offers a moving tribute
to a young man she regards as a martyr. Her poems are
told from multiple points of view, including that of the
fence, the rope that bound the boy, and a doe that stood
watch over him. Booklist starred (September 15, 2012 (Vol.
109, No. 2)
2014-2015
SC Young Adult Book Award Nominees
Lexile: Young Adult
Big sister Hannah joined the Sisters of Grace convent
when Caro was eight, so it seemed simpler to tell
everyone at school that her sister was dead. That was
“Caroliar’s” first lie. Eight years later, Hannah is home,
depressed, and anorexic, having left the convent in selfimposed disgrace. This time it is easier for Caro to
announce Hannah’s return from the Peace Corps, but as
the lies pile up, so does Caro’s own confusion and
disgrace. Booklist starred (October 1, 2012 )Vol. 109, No. 3
2014-2015
SC Young Adult Book Award Nominees
Lexile: 590
It's 1950, and as the French Quarter of New Orleans
simmers with secrets, seventeen-year-old Josie Moraine
is silently stirring a pot of her own. Known among locals
as the daughter of a brothel prostitute, Josie wants
more out of life than the Big Easy has to offer. She
devises a plan get out, but a mysterious death in the
Quarter leaves Josie tangled in an investigation that will
challenge her allegiance to her mother, her conscience,
and Willie Woodley, the brusque madam on Conti Street.
Philomel Books, 2013
2014-2015
SC Young Adult Book Award Nominees
Lexile: 700
Paladin prophecy ; book 1
Will West is careful to live life under the radar. At his
parents' insistence, he's made sure to get mediocre
grades and to stay in the middle of the pack on his crosscountry team. Then Will slips up, accidentally scoring off
the charts on a nationwide exam.
Now Will is being courted by an exclusive prep school . .
. and followed by men driving black sedans. When Will
suddenly loses his parents, he must flee to the school.
There he begins to explore all that he's capable of-physical and mental feats that should be impossible--and
learns that his abilities are connected to a struggle
between titanic forces that has lasted for millennia.
Random House, 2012